We at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts were never completely satisfied with our HUDs. The text would never match up to the graphic it overlays for most screen resolutions. The SL-centric UI had worn out it’s welcome. A redesign was definitely in order and we had certain goals in mind:

Do away with as much HUD text as possible.

Emphasize a more naturalistic approach to sailboat control – in keeping with the sensitory awareness of conditions around you and less on processing numbers. Make it more like real life sailing and less like an arithmetic exercise of matching sail angles to wind angles.

Intuitive buttons, icon based, and replace “hard” numbers with “softer” representation of conditions using analog dials rather than digital indicators. Now that seems more like the instrumentation that would be home on a classic yacht of the 19th and early 20th century! Not to mention construction of mahogany wood and brass materials to fit in the design ethos of Trudeau Yachts :)

Here’s the design we came up with:

It is now a horizontal layout, from left to right are the wind direction, source and speed indicators, then the sail control panels, then other various control buttons. The HUD controls and surfaces explained:

Luff!

By default there are no numbers, wind or sail angles displayed. Sail trim is determined by observing the conditions around you. In RL your sails will let you know when they are out of trim (sometimes quite forcefully ;) ) by the luffing motion and flapping sounds they make. The new Trudeau HUD does the same:

Notice the luffing graphic. The faster it oscillates (and the louder the accompanying sail flapping sound is), the more your sail is out of trim. Sheet in a bit until it stops. Or the luffing might be caused by you “pinching” (sailing too close to the wind). In that case, fall off a few degrees until it stops. Does this sound more like real life sailing? We think so!

For those of you who must have numbers, don’t dispair, we still have you covered. Clicking on the Info Text button brings up a whole slew of precise data:

Since there is no exact text placement, the new HUD may be moved around and resized while onscreen without the problem of text misalignment. The HUD loads on the bottom center of the screen when worn. If you decide to resize the HUD, please work with a copy and stretch it slowly as it’s been observed that not all parts of the HUD resize at the same rate if stretched too quickly. The HUD’s opacity changes with the boat’s set alpha command.

Settings

The HUD has within it’s contents a notecard called settings.ini. Edit this card if you wish to change:

The number of degrees the sails are set with each click:DegreesPerClick=5

The overall strength of the luffing and tacking sounds – 0.0 (minimum) to 1.0 (maximum):LuffLoudness=1.0

What, No Sync Button?

You are probably used to the Trudeau HUD with a “sync” button on it. The new HUD does not have this. If you want to drop a copy of the HUD on someone else so that they may help you sail your yacht, please do the following.

Rez the HUD inworld.

You will see the message on the chatline “Trudeau HUD (<your name>’s boat): Channel burned in for <your name>”

Take the HUD back into inventory.

The HUD will now be titled “Trudeau HUD (<your name>’s boat)

Give that copy of the HUD to your crewmember (explain to them it’ll be good for your boat only)

The Mysterious “Helpsail” Explained

All of the Trudeau Yachts broadcast data to the HUD for display. The helpsail chat command tells the boat to broadcast what the optimum sail angle should be for the current point of sail. The previous EZ-Sail HUDs of the Trudeau Rideable Yachts (Trudeau 32, Bluewater, Tahiti Ketch, Sea Sharp, Sojourner) did not display this. The new HUD does when the text is toggled on after giving the /1 set helpsail on chat command (except from when you are under racewind – that would be cheating!)

EZ-Sail HUD

The new HUD comes in the EZ-Sail version as well. It has all the same features as the full HUD except that all of the boat’s sails are set with one control.

The Trudeau “Rideable” Yachts now have full HUDs for them as well.

The new HUD is compatible with most recent versions of our yachts and is a free update to all Trudeau owners. Look for the HUD update vendor at our Isla de Jacqinda marina!